Ukraine’s Parliament Moves to Shore Up Battered Economy

KIEV, Ukraine — In a blizzard of votes that highlighted Ukraine’s struggles, past and present, the Parliament adopted legislation on Thursday to ban all symbols and “propaganda” of Communism and Nazism and to overhaul the country’s notoriously corrupt and mismanaged natural gas market.

The legislature also passed measures on an array of financial, tax, regulatory and other provisions aimed at improving its nearly collapsed economy.

The frenzy of legislative activity ahead of the Orthodox Easter holiday on Sunday occurred as new evidence emerged of just how badly Ukraine’s business sector has been shattered in the year since mass protests ousted President Viktor F. Yanukovych, Russia annexed Crimea and pro-Russian separatists ignited a war in the industrial eastern regions of Donetsk and Luhansk.

Metinvest, a steel and mining conglomerate owned by Rinat Akhmetov, long reputed to be Ukraine’s richest man, announced that it had defaulted on $113 million in debt and was in negotiations with other bondholders in a bid to defer future payments it cannot make. Metinvest also posted 2014 financial results showing an 18 percent drop in revenues.

The company’s chief executive, Yuri Ryzhenkov, noted in a statement that Metinvest had substantial assets in the war-torn east, but that Ukraine’s overall economic woes also hurt the company.

“The domestic political and economic situation, which began to deteriorate in late 2013, worsened significantly throughout 2014,” Mr. Ryzhenkov said. “Ukraine is experiencing substantial ongoing turbulence.” He added, “Against this backdrop, the conflict in the eastern regions has led to severe disruption at some of our metallurgical and mining facilities.”

The new Ukrainian government has averted financial collapse thanks only to a huge bailout from the International Monetary Fund and other supporters. Many of the legislative provisions adopted Thursday are related to demands by creditors for sweeping economic and regulatory reforms, especially in the energy sector.

Even with a shaky cease-fire mostly holding in the east, the tense political situation continues to overshadow everything, characterized by seething anti-Russian sentiment stemming from the Kremlin’s support of the separatists.

Acting partly on that anger, the Parliament, called the Verkhovna Rada, adopted a law that bans all Nazi and Communist symbols and “propaganda,” including monuments for Communist figures and streets named for them.

The move is a drastic step, given that many places in Ukraine, a former Soviet republic, have streets named for Marx and Lenin, including in Kiev, the capital.

According to the law, those streets would have to be renamed and any statues of Communist figures still standing (many were torn down during last year’s protests) would have to be removed. The measure also bans Communist flags, including the Soviet hammer and sickle, and makes it illegal to deny the “criminal” nature of the Communist and Nazi governments.

Critics of the law said that regional and local officials should decide how streets are named or what monuments are erected. Even some supporters of the general concept of banning “totalitarian” symbols expressed misgivings about the way the bill was rammed through Parliament less than a week after it was formally introduced.

The measure still must be signed by President Petro O. Poroshenko to become law.

In Russia, where a bit of a Soviet revival has been underway, especially as it relates to nostalgia for the Soviet Union’s superpower status, the measure was greeted as yet another example of Kiev’s anti-Russian posture.

Russian officials and government-controlled news outlets have repeatedly asserted that Mr. Yanukovych’s ouster was driven by neo-Nazi and other fascist groups in Ukraine and that those organizations dominate the new government in Kiev.

So there was little surprise on Thursday when the Kremlin immediately condemned the Ukrainian Parliament’s equation of Communism with Nazism.

President Vladimir V. Putin’s chief spokesman, Dmitry Peskov, said Ukraine was disrespecting Russian war veterans before the 70th anniversary of their victory over Nazi Germany next month.

“Russia does and will preserve the memory of the war, and most importantly, it will remember the lessons this war taught the entire humankind,” Mr. Peskov said, according to the Interfax news service. “It is regretful that against the backdrop of such decisions and such claims, very many veterans will find themselves with tears in their eyes in the weeks preceding the V-Day anniversary.”

Another major bill approved by the Ukrainian Parliament on Thursday provided for a sweeping overhaul of the natural gas market, with numerous provisions aimed at curtailing the dominance of the industry by business titans who have become fabulously wealthy, even as the state has hemorrhaged money on energy subsidies.

Leaders of the Ukrainian national gas company, Naftogaz, hailed the bill, saying it would help bring Ukraine in line with international standards.

“This law is an important step toward Ukraine’s integration with the European Union,” Andriy Kobolyev, the chief executive of Naftogaz, said in a statement. “It transparently opens our natural gas market to investors, stimulates competition and clearly outlines the functions of the state.”

A version of this article appears in print on , on Page A4 of the New York edition with the headline: Ukraine’s Parliament Moves to Shore Up Battered Economy. Order Reprints | Today’s Paper | Subscribe